Beneath The Surface
by Assassin and Fichan1
Summary: Vegeta's nightmare continues...
1. Default Chapter Title

Chapter Two

You lucky peeps! The next chapter is out!!! A fic I've been waiting for for yonks is not coming out till December 8 (.So all my fav authors- you know who you are- please post up more of chapters soon. And special thanx to Quaxo who always always always reviews my fics 8 )*Assassin *

In Vegeta's mind, he saw himself cringe, remembered his fear at his actions and the consequences. Frieza stepped over him threateningly. 

"Vegeta." Frieza glowered at him. Vegeta cowered down as far as he could go, pressing himself against the wall, yet screaming at Frieza in anger and fear to keep away from him.

"What is wrong with you?"

The total change of tact threw the young boy completely off balance. He closed his eyes as depression and defeat suddenly hit him, along with the pain from the beating he had just received, as his adrenaline flowed away. He slid down the wall hugging his knees and tried to hold back tears. He was the Prince. He couldn't cry.

"I want to go home." He pleaded. "Why did you take me? Where is my father?''

He looked up at the reddish/purple horned alien, who bent down to look at the young prince. He spoke in a soft yet questioning tone.

"Vegeta what are you talking about? Your planet was destroyed years ago and you know your father is dead."

Vegeta was taken aback by this and for a split second acted as any little boy would. "DEAD!!!!"

He suddenly remembered his position as a prince and regained his indignation. "What are you talking about, my father is not dead. How dare you tell me lies, I am Vegeta, Prince of Saiyans, and you shall pay!"

A look of extreme anger crossed Frieza's normally placid white and purple face, but it was erased and replaced with the usual calm, antagonising expression he usually carried. What he said next totally confused the young prince, who suspected sarcasm so he disregarded it.

"I'm sorry your highness, you are right, your Father and planet are perfectly fine."

"Do you think I care?" Vegeta snapped." Where is my father and why have you taken me away from my people?"

At this point in his dreaming hell, Vegeta's actual memories of Frieza kicked in and Bulma lost her influence over his nightmare.

Frieza hovered above him like the harbringer of doom. He growled menacingly, "You have no more people left, brat."

"I'm not a brat. I'm the Saiy..."

Frieza leapt forward and kicked the young Saiyan under the chin, sending him flying into the wall. The Saiyan groaned and pushed himself up onto his knees with his arm. He spat blood, flowing from his re-wounded mouth. The Tsufur-jin's tail grabbed him by the forearm and threw him into the air. It then re-caught him and flicked, breaking his arm at the elbow and sending him, with some force, to the floor. Before Vegeta hit it, Frieza gave him a roundhouse kick, sending him crashing into the corner of the room, face-first.

The pain and humiliation Vegeta had suffered was too much for the child to bear any longer. The tears he had dammed for so long were finally released. They dripped fast down his slightly rounded cheeks, diluting the blood that also ran down his face. He felt an immense despair fill him, and shame, even though he was a young child, at his tears. He closed his eyes and waited for the next blow. He whimpered words that he had not planned to say.

"Please leave me alone. Please, Master Frieza." He stopped, cowering. He had curled up as tight as he could, so as to provide as small a target as possible. The next thing he knew, someone had stepped up to him and was reaching out. He flinched in fear and began unintelligibly screaming. He swung a little fist out, watching the figure step backwards, even as Vegeta screamed at the person, telling them to stay away.

The figure sighed and said something unexpected. "I will **not hurt you."**

It was a welcome statement but was greeted with distrust. Too many years of too many lies had taken its toll on the young Saiyan, and he was now unable to trust anyone. He looked up, and the action caused more tears to spill from his eyes, tracking their way down his cheeks. He saw long, green braided hair, coupled with pale green skin and golden eyes. Zarbon. Even through the pain, Vegeta found it inside him to narrow his eyes in a baleful glare.

"What do you want?" He said, defensively, subconsciously cradling his broken arm.

"Vegeta," the accented voice sounded...pleading? "Please tell me what's going on."

Vegeta had no time for confusion. He knew that Zarbon had been privy to the little 'discussion' between Frieza and himself. Vegeta's anger simmered within him.

"You know what's going on. You saw what he did to me," He growled. "And you didn't stop him, you green freak."

Zarbon blinked, and then his face grew angry as he slapped Vegeta across the face, screaming, "How dare you insult me, you pointy-haired monkey."

Vegeta snapped. The anger he had been suppressing finally burnt its way through him, giving him the energy to spring up. The pain in his arm had dulled to a low throb, but screamed up again as the bones ground together. A sudden feeling of hopelessness coursed through Vegeta. He had been beaten; choked, told his family was dead. His emotions had been toyed with and he had been humiliated. He had lost most of his pride and he was only seven. He felt as if he watched the events that followed through the eyes of a machine that he was inside, through a window, as if he controlled someone else's body. At that point in time he would've walked over a cliff without caring. He yelled at Zarbon.

"Baka! Coward! I thought you had more respect for yourself than to pick on a chibi!"

Zarbon retreated a few steps as Vegeta slowly slid back down, still holding his unnaturally twisted arm. They breathed in silence for a moment. Vegeta had stopped crying and just sat there, staring blankly ahead. Blood continued to drip from the various wounds Frieza had inflicted and formed pools around him. He didn't bother to wipe it off.

Finally, Zarbon asked Vegeta, "How old are you anyway?"

Vegeta's earlier rage had seeped away as he sat there, and he now drew himself up as much as possible. He felt broken and bruised ribs complain, but he managed to stand up anyway.

"Seven and a half standard years."

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"Who do you think I am?" Bulma asked, curious to know the answer.

"Baka." Vegeta cried, angry again. "I'm the one that got hit on the head. How stupid can you get?" 

Concern overtook Bulma's anger at the insult. "When were you hit on the head?" she asked, concerned for his welfare.

"Are you blind as well as stupid?" Vegeta yelled, extremely annoyed. "When Frieza threw me into a wall."

" You don't need to yell, I'm just trying to make sure you don't have amnesia." Bulma snapped. She was quickly losing her patience with the chibi Vegeta. 

Vegeta sighed. "Okay. You're Zarbon, I'm Vegeta and Frieza is a bakayaro."

*Okay* Bulma thought. *He thinks I'm that mutating freak. * Bulma took a deep breath and tried to talk like Zarbon.

"You should not insult Master Frieza like that. What did he do to you anyway?"

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Vegeta flinched under Zarbon's golden gaze. Just thinking about it made Vegeta ache all over. He didn't want to seem like a coward in front of Frieza's lackey though.He thought back to the recent past. It bothered him a little that he had trouble remembering exactly what had been done to him. It came back to him slowly, in gasps. He related the tale to Zarbon, while seeing it in his own mind.

*_He slapped me round the back of my head, sending me flying into the middle of the room. The others left. I struggled up, my head ringing and even my eyes aching from the force of the whack. I tasted blood in my mouth, oozing slowly from my bitten tongue and I sucked at the cut to stop it bleeding. Frieza approached me, hovering slightly above the ground. He grinned as I glared at him, knowing that to fight back, as futile as it may be, was to endanger the life of my planet, my people. My father. He suddenly levitated higher and kicked me under the chin. I somersaulted backwards, but he appeared behind me and kicked me into the air, then fazed above me and punched me into the ground. He began a routine, kicking me into range of his punches when I dropped too low. I eventually blacked out, but he wrapped his tail around my neck. I couldn't breathe and eventually passed out again… *_

The flashback ended. He trailed off, realising suddenly that he had started crying sometime through his story and was unable to stop. He slowly exhausted himself and drifted into a deeper sleep, but not before he had attached himself to the only stable presence that had been near him in years.

All for now soz'. Come back soon for chapter three. (If we get enough reviews.) Plus, one of my new fics is up. 

Fichan: assassin has almost finished writing her section of chapter 3 so it should be up soon. Hope you have enjoyed this chapter.

**_Please R/R._****__**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Three

Here ya are peeps. The next part of the fic you've all been waiting for starring characters that I definitely don't own because Fichan believes in solipsism and so nobody else exists. And yes, I can see the problems in that as well.

While Vegeta had been relating his tale to Bulma she had picked him up, surprised at how little he weighed, and helped him onto the bed. He was now lying in her arms sobbing uncontrollably. 

He eventually calmed down and now rested peacefully asleep. Bulma sighed. She had developed a new-found respect for Vegeta. She watched him for a while, as he slept. He looked so much younger when he slept so peacefully, she could see how young he really was, underneath all that scowling and maliciousness, and found she could easily imagine what he looked like as a chibi. She smiled slightly, and impulsively bent down and kissed his forehead. She tried to get up, but found that as a result, Vegeta had wrapped his arms possessively around her waist. Try as she might, she could not get up without waking him. She sighed and, resigning herself to a bad night's sleep rested her head on the headrest and closed her eyes.

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Vegeta woke up slowly. He discovered that he was still dog-tired from the previous day's training and was puzzled. "That much training shouldn't have made me that tired." He thought. He still hadn't opened his eyes, so the first indication he had of someone in his bed was soft breathing and the faint scent of perfume. He opened his eyes, ready to fight the intruder, and was startled to find his arms wrapped around Bulma's waist. He quickly let go and Bulma made a soft noise, turning towards the warmth of his body in her sleep. He sat up with some difficulty, because Bulma had fallen asleep right above him, with her head on the headrest. He sat up so that he could see her face, about to bawl her out.

He stopped, slightly confused and mildly amused at the mildly annoyed expression on her face and the frown on her lips. He then gazed in wonder at her aqua hair. It cushioned her head slightly and fell across her dozing face. He was intrigued. The only colour Saiyan women had to their hair, as far as he could remember was shades of black with red, brown and royal blue hints. He had a vague and distant idea of his own mother having a tint of light brown and his father had slightly red hair. That was probably where he got his own hair colour. He tentatively reached out a hand and caught a lock of hers. He stroked it softly in wonder, totally lost in his own curiosity. It was so soft!!! He had never felt anything like this before. He idly lifted the hair into a shaft of light and moved it, seeing the colour change subtly, from a dark sea green to a lighter turquoise…

He caught himself. "What..?" he yelled at himself as he dropped the hair and snatched his hand back. "...am I _doing_!?!?" He was angry with himself for getting mesmerised by his own feelings. How many times in the past had his curiosity led to trouble? How many times? And still he hadn't learned to control himself. It didn't help that he was curious even by Saiyan standards as well. Half the punishments he had received as a child were because of his being too curious for his own good. He got out of bed, leaned down to Bulma's face and growled, 

"What _are_ you doing here, woman?"

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"What are _you_ doing here woman?"

This was the first thing Bulma heard as she was forced out of her disjointed slumber. She opened her eyes to find Vegeta's face inches from her own. She saw anger flicker in the ebony eyes, and felt fear run down her spine…but his anger wasn't totally directed at her. She blinked and rubbed her eyes sleepily, as he let her sit up. "Wha..?" she muttered, looking up at him.

"Are you deaf our something, I asked you what the HFIL you were doing in my bed, Baka!"

Bulma stared at him and figured that he wouldn't like it if she told him the truth so she tried to find a way to divert the conversation. And the obvious way to divert a Saiyan was through his stomach.

"I'm sooooo hungry." Bulma yawned. "I think I'll go down and make myself breakfast." Turning hopefully to Vegeta she asked, "Want some?" But Vegeta wasn't that easy to sidetrack.

"I don't want any of _your_ cooking Baka, it tastes like kuso." Now tell me why you're here." He sounded even more annoyed and angry than usual. '_What is she trying to hide?_' Vegeta thought. '_Why is she changing the subject?_' He was thoroughly confused by now, and confusion fuelled his temper.

Bulma had just glanced at the clock and noticed that it was FOUR in the MORNING! She glared at him, her mouth pinched tight, showing the extreme anger bubbling inside her.

"One," she said, in a tight voice. "Do not call me Baka. Two," her voice was raising. "Do not insult my cooking. If you don't like it cook for yourself. And three," her voice getting high pitched and shrill. "What were you thinking waking me up at FOUR IN THE MORNING?!?!" She finished off screaming.

Vegeta just frowned at her. "Just answer the question, for Kami's sake."

Bulma lost it. '_Fine'_ she thought to herself. '_All right_. _If he wants to know so bad then I'll tell him_.' She smirked and Vegeta shivered inside. She looked like Frieza when she did that.

"You really want to know. Okay then."

And she told him. She told him how he had screamed and cried, what he had said while sleep talking and how he had sobbed himself to sleep in her arms. She told him this with a spin on it to show him just how little she thought of him, because she knew how proud she was, and how the best way to get to him was through that. She stood there, a knowing look on her face and an even bigger sneer than she had started of with.

Vegeta stared at her, completely gob-smacked, with his pride in tatters. He suddenly readjusted his expression to a blank look that she had seen on him before when he seemed to be putting up a front. He turned around and walked out of the room without a backward glance.

As soon as he had left Bulma felt incredibly guilty. She hadn't meant what she had said to come out the way she had said it. Last night she had seen a different side of Vegeta, one she had never seen before. She had liked the Vegeta who had seemed so vulnerable, crying his heart out in her arms. She liked to feel like the protector, almost as much as she liked to feel protected. It made her feel strong, like she was capable of withstanding anything. And now she had mocked him for something she respected him for. He had never been very open about his emotions as long as she had known him, and instead of helping him, she had sent him retreating even further into the shell he created around himself.

She suddenly felt a burning desire, even a need to help him, but now he wouldn't let her near him, there was no question about it. He had done so unexpectedly and she had mocked him for it. She sighed. How could she help him? She had to find out more about his childhood. She was sure the answer lay within it somewhere. That's when it hit her. She could go back in time!

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Vegeta had taken off in the direction of the nearest isolated area. He concentrated on flying for the moment, as fast as he could. He felt the structured, regulated use of his ki put him in control and he enjoyed the feeling. He was in control of so little these days. He felt that he was steadily losing control of his whole life, and it frightened him. If he wasn't in control…someone else was. Someone else in charge was something he had come to fear.

He found the perfect place, a plateau, and landed, rested his head in his hands and sighed. He felt so embarrassed. He-the mighty Prince of Saiyans- had been crying like a human brat. And Bulma had been there! Worse, he had clung on to her like... He shook his head and sighed again. He remembered the time of that dream. He hadn't been with Frieza for very long and had refused to obey the soldier's commands, after all he was a prince. As a result he had been brought in front of Frieza. He shuddered at the memories and stopped them quickly. He had had an obligation to kill Frieza...and a third-class Saiyan had not only beaten him to it, but had become what he himself had always aspired to be. The only thing that had kept him pushing himself on Frieza's ship, the only thought that had stopped him killing himself so many times before.

He gathered a ball of ki in his hand suddenly, and slowly shaped it into a blade. He ran the edge of it lightly over the skin of his throat while contemplating.

He had no planet.

He had no people.

He had been denied his revenge and had been surpassed by a base-born baka.

He had been killed.

Accidentally brought back to life.

Overshadowed, ridiculed, embarrassed.

Vulnerable.

He had had enough. He brought the knife into his field of vision and turned it, watching it glint in the sunlight. He let it dissipate.

__

*I wonder if Kakkarott wants to spar? *

There was no honour in killing himself.

__

Hope that was enough for ya peeps. No? Well read chapter four then. It should be out as well. 8)


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Four

Sorry it's been so long peeps. My comp was offline for a while. Enjoy. 

The next chapter probably won't be out till after the new year, coz I'm (fichan) going on hols for JChristmasJ, and sin is so busy writing her other fics that she can't be bothered to write this one.

Bulma was still wondering how to achieve her goal of time travel as she made lunch for Vegeta and Goku. They were really battling it out in there. Vegeta must have been stressed after her blatant ridicule of his recent terror at night and was apparently taking it out on Goku. 

She ran through the options that she had available to her in her mind. She couldn't think of any realistic ways of jumping through time the way she needed to. 

She finished lunch and decided to call the boys in. She put the HUGE meal on the table and then pressed a large red button, not unlike a fire alarm. After a second, two screams were heard as the door to the gravity room was flung open and the two Saiyans came running out as fast as they could, their hands over their ears. 

The button was, Bulma thought, one of her better inventions. It caused a very loud, extremely high-pitched noise to be heard throughout Capsule Corps. It was an efficient way of keeping a modicum of control over the aggressive Saiyan Prince. Goku and Vegeta came stumbling out of the gravity room, but Bulma did not take her hand of the buzzer until they were both in the kitchen. 

Vegeta glowered. "What the HFIL do you think you were doing woman? You could've burst our eardrums."

Bulma's reply was to smile pleasantly and tell them to eat the banquet-sized lunch she had made. Halfway through, Bulma had remembered something Yamcha had said about the Room of Space and Time. She made a mental note to ask Goku about it later.

*******************************************************************

After lunch Goku and Vegeta trained some more and were currently in the process of finishing off Bulma's third attempt that day to make something that was the least bit edible. Vegeta ate little for a Saiyan and left before Goku had even begun to make a reasonable start on the food. He decided he couldn't be bothered to wait for Goku and went off to train on his own till he had finished.

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He hadn't been hungry. This was stupid! He had to snap out of it. He had been thinking about killing himself for crying out loud! And starving himself wouldn't help either. He started performing a vigorous kata in the hopes of stopping himself from thinking. It wasn't working. It hadn't been something he could help, though. He had felt that if he ate more than he had he would've been sick. He also felt incredibly weary. He stopped the kata in mid-air and sat down heavily, holding his head in his hands as he sighed. What was wrong with him? Could it be the woman? She had been tainting his thoughts for a while now. He hated her. What right had she to come into his room and see him as he was re-living one of the worst times of his life in his own head?

She had had no right, to come in, to pretend to be someone she was not, someone who had hurt him in the past. She had no right to worm information out of him like that, when he was asleep and vulnerable, no right to make him re-live more than he had wanted to, no right to hold him as he had wept his sorrows in his past, in his present, simultaneously. Wait a minute. Why was he thinking of that? He had not wanted the comfort she had not offered, but forced on him, but it had been welcome. A minute of security. He remembered that as well. He didn't want it for a reason. '_These things are addictive_,' he had been taught. '_What is the point of wanting something you cannot have? No one here will give it to you._ _You are no longer a child, you are not even a regular person. You are one of Master Frieza's destroyers, do you understand? You give pain, you destroy things built. You cannot be soft. Life is tumultuous, you could be dead tomorrow, you may have to kill the one you are addicted to, and what if you can't? You would be a liability, and we can't afford liabilities. If you want to survive, chibi Ouji, you will have to stop these feelings, resist all advances, you must never be caught off guard._'

The soldier had been right. To allow himself such 'liabilities' would be dangerous. She had ridiculed him for his crying afterwards, she had most probably been pretending to care, as Nappa had used to do. He had deserved it. He had let his guard down and that had been the punishment. He expected nothing else.

* _Then why does it hurt so much? * _A small voice inside him mourned. He shook his head. It didn't hurt. How could it? There had been nothing there to hurt in the first place.

"Where the HFIL is Kakkarott?" he asked himself, and he got up and walked towards the kitchen, pointedly ignoring the wailing that carried on in his head.

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Once Vegeta had gone, Bulma turned to Goku and started quizzing him about the Room of Spirit and Time. After two or three hours of this, Goku got a confused expression on his face. He had told Bulma everything he knew about the Room of Spirit and Time at least three times over by now and he still wanted to know more. It was time for him to ask a question.

"Bulma?" he questioned. "Why do you suddenly want to know about the Room of Spirit and Time?"

Bulma looked at him and blinked slowly. He had interrupted her mid-question and it also hadn't occurred to her that Goku might want to know why she was quizzing him. 

"Well…I…uh…um…" she stuttered. Goku looked at her expectantly. She swallowed. "Um, well…" she licked her lips nervously. "You see, Vegeta's been having really bad nightmares lately, and I want to know what they're about. He keeps talking about Frieza and Zarbon, so I think it has something to do with his past or how Frieza raised him and I want to find out more."

"So you want to use the Room of Spirit and Time…to go back to when Vegeta was a chibi…to see why he has these nightmares?" Goku asked. Bulma nodded. "I think it would be better, if you talked to Kami about this. It's his room and he probably knows more about it than I do."

At this point, Vegeta came storming in, yelling. "What the HFIL are you doing, Kakkarott? You've been in here for over three hours."

Goku just smiled appeasingly at him, shot a look at Bulma and went back to training.

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Bulma lay in bed, thinking about what Goku had said. She knew that if she went into the Room of Space and Time, she could lose years of her life. _* I wonder if there's a way round that? * _She thought. She had been thinking over her idea for over a week now. Was she really willing to lose years of her life for Vegeta? Surprisingly, the answer that came naturally to her was yes. She didn't know if she would do it for Yamcha, yet she was ready and willing to risk everything for Vegeta. It scared her.

"Well, girl," she thought. "If you're going to something you'd better do it soon, because he's getting worse day by day." As if on cue, the whimpers that signalled the beginning of her guest's nightly hell started up, punctuated by muffled murmuring and screams. Her ears had become tuned to the sound, and so she got up and went to his room, as she had done for the past few nights. He was lying face down on the pillow, so she quickly flipped him over so that he wouldn't suffocate. She sat down on his bed and wiped away the tears that had wet his face. His face was red from lying face down and she kissed it tenderly. She stroked his hair and spoke softly to him.

She hadn't allowed herself to fall asleep in his room after that first night. He already thought that she considered his nightly torture a weakness, and for him to see her asleep the next morning as he had on the first night would only send him back further into his too tight circle of isolation. She wished she could put her own pride aside and apologise for that, but she just couldn't. In this way she could relate to Vegeta.

After a while, he had settled to hiccups. He looked at her with unseeing eyes and spoke. "Buruma?" He had started calling her this a few nights ago in his sleep and while she had no idea who this person was, she was glad that there had been someone in his life who had offered him just a little bit of comfort. "You-you shouldn't be here. He was strangling…"

"Hush Vegeta, shhh." She whispered. He clung onto her in a tight hug, like a chibi, and softly cried himself to sleep. She hadn't noticed he had started crying again.

Bulma looked down at him, noting the tear-tracked face, the swollen eyes and the look of total and utter exhaustion and sighed. She had to put her fears about what she was feeling aside. Vegeta needed her. And, although she didn't know why, she had to do this. She didn't want to be another person who had let him down. She set Vegeta back down on the bed and entered her own room. She changed into an outfit identical to the one she wore on Namek, packed a small bag of things. It consisted of a change of clothes, her over night things and a container of capsules holding every type of capsule she would need and even some she didn't, as well as some empty ones. She then went outside, popped open an air car and took off for Kami's lookout.

That's all for now evil ones (and the few good ones rare as you may be). Sympathise with me for a minute people… Fichan is going to Tenerife for Crimbo 8 ( 

I'm gonna be so lonely. Oh well. See ya soon. 


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